ARTICLE VENDING MACHINE AND METHOD FOR EXCHANGING AN INOPERABLE ARTICLE FOR AN OPERABLE ARTICLE

• US 20110060456A1
• Filed: 09/05/2009
• Published: 03/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Redbox Automated Retail LLC (Chicken Soup For The Soul Holdings LLC)
• Original Assignee: Redbox Automated Retail LLC (Chicken Soup For The Soul Holdings LLC)
• Inventors: Hoersten, Eric, Lowe, J. Mitchell, Kapcar, Christopher A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,996,162 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/237
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/18 involving self-service terminals [SST], vending machines, kiosks or multimedia terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/204 comprising interface for record bearing medium or carrier for electronic funds transfer or payment credit
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0645 Rental transactions; Leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 11/54 about vertical axes
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/002 Vending machines being part of a centrally controlled network of vending machines

Abstract

An article vending machine in a network of article vending machines capable of exchanging an inoperable rental article received from a user for an operable replacement article. The article dispensing machine checks customer identification information against one or more customer rental criteria to determine if the customer is eligible to exchange an inoperable article for an operable one. The article vending machine searches for an identical replacement article within an inventory of the machine itself and within inventories of the networked article vending machines. Alternatively, the article vending machine may provide a refund for the inoperable article.

Claims

1. A method for receiving an inoperable article via an article vending machine and providing a refund for the rental of the inoperable article, the article vending machine having a user interface, a processor, a receptacle and an inventory of articles housed in the article vending machine, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a command through the user interface requesting to return an inoperable article;

receiving the inoperable article via the receptacle;

identifying a customer associated with the inoperable article using program code operating with the processor; and

determining if the customer is eligible to receive a refund for the rental of the inoperable article using the program code, and, if the customer is eligible, permitting the refund; and

,

determining if the inventory contains an identical replacement article using the program code.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the article vending machine is networked to a plurality of remote vending machines each having an inventory of articles, the method further comprising the steps of:

if the inventory of the article vending machine does not contain an identical replacement article, determining which remote vending machines comprise an identical replacement article within the respective remote vending machine inventories; and

,

transmitting a list of remote vending machines having identical replacement articles to the user interface.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of transmitting to the user interface an option to reserve the identical replacement article at one of the remote vending machines.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of transmitting to the user interface an option to receive a non-identical replacement article if the article vending machine inventory does not contain an identical replacement article.

5. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of transmitting to the user interface an option to receive refund for the cost of the rental of the inoperable article if the article vending machine inventory does not contain an identical replacement article.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination of whether a customer is eligible to receive a refund for the inoperable article is based, at least in part, on at least one customer criterion selected from the group consisting of number of returned inoperable articles, frequency of returns of inoperable articles, percentage of transactions resulting in an returns of an inoperable article, and time of last return of an inoperable article.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination of whether a customer is eligible to receive a refund for the inoperable article is based on whether the customer is listed on an inoperable article refund blacklist.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

reading an article identifier from the inoperable article; and

referencing a database to determine the identity of the returned article based on the article identifier.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of identifying a database entry for the inoperable article.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of modifying, the database entry for the inoperable article to indicate that the corresponding article is inoperable.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of prohibiting rental of the inoperable article.

12. The article vending machine of claim 11 wherein the article vending machine is networked to a plurality of remote vending machines each having an inventory of articles.

13. The article vending machine of claim 12 wherein the program code is further configured to determine which of the remote vending machines have in their inventories an identical replacement article and to provide a list of the remote vending machines having identical replacement articles.

14. The article vending machine of claim 13 wherein the program code is further configured to permit a user to reserve one of the identical replacement articles at one of the remote vending machines on the list of the remote vending machines having identical replacement articles.

15. The article vending machine of claim 11 wherein the program code is configured to provide, via the user interface, an offer to select a non-identical replacement article if it is determined that the article vending machine does not have an identical replacement article.

16. The article vending machine of claim 11 wherein the program code is configured to provide, via the user interface, a coupon for a rental article if it is determined that the article vending machine does not have an identical replacement article.

17. A network of article vending machines comprising:

a first article vending machine comprising;

an inventory comprised of a plurality of rental articles;

a receptacle for receiving an inoperable rental article; and

a user interface configured to receive a request to return the inoperable rental for a refund;

a plurality of remote article vending machines in communication with the first article vending machine, each remote article vending machine having an inventory of a plurality of rental articles; and

,

a processor configured using program code to determine if the inventory of the first article vending machine contains a replacement article that is identical to the inoperable article.

18. The network of article vending machines of claim 17 wherein the program code is further configured to determine if one or more of the remote article vending machines contain an identical replacement article, if the inventory of the first article vending machine does not contain an identical replacement article.

19. The network of article vending machines of claim 18 wherein the user interface is configured to display an identification of the one or more remote article vending machines that contain an identical replacement article and to permit a user to select one of the one or more of the remote article vending machines that contain an identical replacement article and reserve the identical replacement article at the selected remote article vending machine.

20. The network of article vending machines of claim 17 further comprising a memory containing a list of customers ineligible to return inoperable articles for a refund.

21. The network of article vending machines of claim 17 wherein the program code is configured to offer the customer, via the user interface, the option to receive a non-identical replacement article, if the inventory of the first article vending machine does not contain an identical replacement article.

22. The network of article vending machines of claim 17, wherein the determination of whether a customer is eligible to receive a refund for returning the inoperable article is based, at least in part, on a customer criterion selected from the group consisting of number of returned inoperable articles, frequency of returns of inoperable articles, percentage of transactions resulting in an returns of an inoperable article, and time of last return of an inoperable article.

23. The network or article vending machines of claim 17, wherein the determination of whether a customer is eligible to receive a refund for the inoperable article is based, at least in part, on the frequency of returns of inoperable articles by that customer.

24. An article vending machine configured to receive an inoperable rental article and provide a refund for the rental of the inoperable article, the article vending machine comprising:

a user interface configured to receive a request to return an inoperable rental article for an refund;

a receptacle for receiving the inoperable rental article;

an inventory comprised of a plurality of articles;

a memory containing a database identifying the inoperable rental articles that have been received; and

,

a processor in communication with the user interface and configured using program code to receive a request from a service person via the user interface to vend all of the articles identified as inoperable articles in the database.

25. The article vending machine of claim 24 wherein the articles are vended via the receptacle in response to the request from a service person to vend all of the articles identified as inoperable articles in the database.

26. A method for purging inoperable rental articles from an article vending machine having a user interface, a receptacle, an inventory of articles housed in the article vending machine, a processor, a database of information relating to the inventory of articles, and at least one of the inventory of articles having been identified as inoperable in the database, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a command via the user interface requesting a purge of the inoperable articles;

marking each of the articles identified in the database as inoperable using program code operating with the processor;

automatically vending each of the articles identified as inoperable via the receptacle using the program code; and

,

deleting the entry for the vended inoperable articles from the database, using the program code.